Leading international knowledge publisher Taylor & Francis has announced a significant new open access (OA) partnership with CRUI (Conferenza dei Rettori delle Università Italiane), the association of Italian state and private universities. 31 CRUI members have opted into the ‘read & publish’ agreement, enabling researchers at these institutions to choose OA for their journal articles without paying an OA publishing charge.
The OA publishing component of this comprehensive agreement covers all eligible research articles published in over 2,100 Open Select (hybrid) Taylor & Francis and Routledge journals. This extensive portfolio spans the full spectrum of academic disciplines, including social sciences, humanities, science, technology, engineering, and medicine, enabling researchers in every field to benefit.
Articles published under this agreement will be OA immediately upon publication, ensuring they can be read, downloaded, and reused by peers, policymakers, practitioners, and general readers worldwide, boosting the potential reach and impact of Italian research.
The three-year deal has been backdated to January 2025, which means hundreds of articles published by CRUI-affiliated researchers since the beginning of last year will also be retrospectively converted to OA.
The flexible ‘read’ element ensures students and faculty have uninterrupted access to the journals they need. Each participating institution can curate its own selection of titles from across the extensive Taylor & Francis portfolio, which includes thousands of leading journals and millions of articles. Additional subscriptions beyond the core agreement are available at a significant discount.
Dr Antonio Torrisi of the Library and Coworking Services Center at the University of Catania said: “The CRUI agreement with Taylor & Francis provides important strategic advantages to the University of Catania, our authors and library users. For the university the new agreement supports the ‘third mission’, sharing new knowledge with broader society, as well as increasing institutional visibility and prestige. Our authors benefit from dedicated support to publish in high-impact journals, accelerating the international dissemination of their studies. For library users the agreement ensures access to the resources they need, both enriching teaching and inspiring innovative research.”
Carolyn Kirby, Vice President & Commercial Lead at Taylor & Francis, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have reached an agreement that fully meets the ambitions of CRUI members and their researchers. This partnership reflects our ongoing commitment to working with research communities worldwide to advance open research in ways that are practical, equitable, and aligned with institutional priorities.”